How a Case of Mistaken Identity Got Me Kicked Out of QAnon HQ
Daily Beast reporter Will Sommer even upstaged Michael Flynn and his coup speech at QCon.
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast
You thought Michael Flynn calling for a coup was the most exciting thing to happen at the QAnon conference in Dallas over Memorial Day weekend? Think again, Fever Dreams fans, for just before the wacko retired general longingly wished for a Myanmar-style crackdown here in the U.S. of A., our very own beloved host Will Sommer got kicked out of QCon to a standing ovation.
You can hear about the whole messy showdown on the pod—it started with a case of mistaken identity and spiraled into a shirtless man screaming on television that Will Sommer is his nemesis—but before Will was shown out by the Dallas police department, he had a firsthand look at the heart of insanity, where diehard QAnon fandom paid $500 a pop to play trivia games about “Q clues,” attend an auction featuring a picture of Flynn as a minuteman (going price: $7K), and watch videos of WWG1WGA stormtroopers dethroning Joe Biden.
And for those who might dismiss QAnon as a relic in the Biden era, Will and cohost Asawin Suebsaeng point out that the conference featured a whole roster of people “who are important political players, including ones who are literally still in positions of power,” from congressman Louie Gohmert to Texas GOP Chairman Allen West. “This is not just a couple of QAnon people babbling to themselves,” Will warns. “This is a movement…this deranged thinking about the cabal, and the pedophile cannibals somehow has gone on beyond Q and transmuted itself into being a regular line of thought.”
Also on this episode of Fever Dreams, our hosts talk to The Washington Post’s Dave Weigel about the massive GOP push to crack down on voting rights at the state and local levels, and they discuss how Trump’s associates are trying, and failing, to get the former president to care about encouraging his base to get vaccinated.
Finally, we get an up-close look at how alt-right comedian (and former Christina Ricci paramour) Owen Benjamin is causing chaos with his new crowdsourced, bear-themed compound in Idaho—“Beartaria.” Benjamin, Beartaria, and his supporters (“UnBearables”) are heading for a showdown with locals—and even some rogue Bears who are pissed at how Benjamin took their money and now doesn’t want them on his land. Stay tuned, because this furry dystopia has “the next Ruby Ridge” written all over it.
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